Alabama Ditches LOL. How Does Your State Laugh Online?

What’s in an LOL? According to Facebook research, not much. Times change. We grow older. Wiser. Facebook decided to look at the evolution of laughing online after The New Yorker’s Sarah Larson prompted engineers to start digging.

How do we communicate laughter? How people communicate rage is easy. Just look at Facebook comments. We are either all smart asses, or most of us should be medicated.

Back to the laughing. It is Monday, so let’s keep it light. How’s the ole standby of lol doing? Life support. We’re talking it could be time to pull the plug, discuss it with the Obamacare death panels, DNR or go straight Kevorkian on it.

Facebook analyzed comments and posts for the last week of May to identify just how we laugh online. Lol stands at just 1.9 percent. The mighty has fallen.

What’s leading the pack? Ever use ‘haha’ or some version of you having a mini stroke while typing it out? You’re in the majority with 51.4 percent. Right on, that’s what I use the majority of the time.

Don’t judge when I start slapping the computer, and it comes out as hhahahhaaa. My iPhone’s predictive type is a pain in the ass and likes that version better.

Number two on the list? The emoji clocking in with 33.7 percent. If my parents had Facebook, I’d think the company was spying on them. My dad will throw a sunglasses smiling emoji on you. My mom? Tears of laughter. At least, I hope they are tears of laughter…

Three belongs to hehe at 13.1 percent. According to Larson’s piece, hehe is being thrust upon us by the nation’s youth. The data says no. Hehe goes from ages 13 to 70.

How about gender? Women tend to rely on the emoji more, but the difference isn’t substantial. Men go for the hahas more than women, but it’s the same case with emojis. Nothing that screams outlier.

Alabama Laughs Online

What about states? Going from Facebook’s data, I’m the odd one out. Haha barely registers here, with emojis taking the lead.

California, Texas and Colorado remain the final stand for lol. It’s dwindling but have hope for the three letters.

A more broad look at the states show haha and hehe are popular in the west. Emojis? Well, something has to cheer you up in when the blizzards hit. The South remains the overall bastion of lols though the concentrations give way to emojis in Alabama and Mississippi.

Facebook ends their research with a message to the presidential candidates: the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia are haha states, while the candidates’ emoji games will surely be key in determining who emerges victorious in Florida.

I’ve never been prouder to live in a non-battleground state. Residents of those three? I’d pray for you, but it’s not going to work. The true social media campaign has been unleashed. Blame Facebook when The Donald rages out to an emoji-laden campaign ad.